Sooooo, I have not written in a very long time. And that is because I have been eating.

Last Nov/December I had started on a re-freshed weight loss effort. My motivation was my friend’s wedding where I was going to be a bridesmaid. I deliberately sent measurements that were an inch less than the real ones to force me to lose weight. If i was fat, I woudn’t be able to fit into the dress.

I did very well by going down from 91.2kg to 87.2kg.

BUT! I ended up not being able to go for the wedding because of finances.

PLUS, December happened.

So, I have re-gained it all… well, I was 90.2 this morning 😦

The Goal

I would like to lose 10kgs by 30 April 2017 – 3.5 months from now

Part 1: I want to drop 5kgs first. This needs to happen by 15 February – About a month from now. This equates to about 1kg per week. And I believe it is possible as I have done it before.

Part 2: After the first 5kg is done, I will work towards the other 5kgs. I know it will be harder, that’s why I am giving myself more time to get rid of it.

I am hoping that by 30 April, I would have adopted healthier eating habits, smaller portions and more exercise.

The 2017 Plan

To fight the fat, I am going to eat less. My new job makes that very possible. I am too far from any shops and so, can’t just go out the door for a quick snack.

Whatever I bring from home is all I can eat.

I don’t eat breakfast anymore. I only have lunch at 12pm. Usually I will have 3 or 4 slices of bread with tomato, ham and slice of cheese. And then not eat anything until I have supper at home.

Yesterday I was bad and spent waaaay too much money on a piece of carrot cake from the coffee shop downstairs. That won’t be happening again because it is a waste of money and I ALWAYS feel bad when I eat like that.

One thing I need to learn how to do is to portion control dinner. Because my last meal was at lunch, I find myself eating way too much at supper.

Last week I did ok with regards to this “diet”, but had potato chips and other stuff. The weekend I binged quite a bit – IT WAS BAD. Wolfing down 8 KFC wings + a big packet of potato chips is not normal.

I want to start running.. even if it is for 10 minutes. That’s where the challenge is going to be.

In the last two weeks, I’ve gone from 87.6kg (my lowest in 12months!) back up to 88.9kg, then down again to 87.8kg this morning. I won’t lie and say I’ve been working hard, but I’ve been doing my best to eat well.

I’ve been trying to go super low-carb, but I’ve instead been having my carbs in the morning (bread with cheese or something), then low carb lunch and dinner.

I’d developed a bad habit of having a chocolate in the afternoon, but I realised the reason for that was that I wasn’t eating a proper breakfast. Eating in the morning keeps me full until after 1pm.

I then have my lunch of mixed veg and a protein. I’ve gone back to “mass cooking”… large pot of minced beef or chicken mixed with veg, and have that for lunch every day.

As long as I’m not snacking and eating carbs in the evening, I’m fine.

Let’s see how the next two weeks go. My goal is to hit 86.anything this month.

The lowest I’ve been these last couple of weeks was 88.0kg (down from 89.2kg when I last wrote here)….That elusive “87” seems to be slipping away as I’ve gained about 600g since that low 88.0kg weight. Today I’m 88.6kg.

I haven’t been low carb because of budget issues. It’s cheaper to buy a loaf of bread to last you the week, than to buy veggies and meat for the week #JanuaryDisease

Anyway, I get paid next Tuesday, so I’ll be able to afford fresh veggies and pair them with nicely cooked meat.

I got back into the gym a couple of weeks ago. It felt very good… Don’t ask me why I haven’t been back.

However, I carried my gym bag and intend on having a quick session after work.

So, last week had been going fine, then I had to go for a 24 hour retreat thing for work.

It was basically 24hours of delicious food and 1st class wine.

Of course I mentally prepped myself for the challenges ahead.

However, when each of the 12 courses on the first night were presented, I had to try them all…right?

Fortunately, MOST of them were carb-free salad type of dishes. There was a curry dish with rice, but I only ate the lamb, and there was pulled pork in a bun, I only ate the pork.

However, when dessert was presented, I lost my mind!

The next day we had a couple of physical activities, meaning I could burn one or two of the previous night’s calories.

Lunch, I was actually quite well behaved. I didn’t have any bread, and did not have the potato salad (…I wept!). I had the green salads (and some of the “bad” veggies such as beetroot) and chicken and cheese.

I also had a little bit of dessert and some macaroons later in the day.

Naturally, because I ate so much, one would expect me to be stricter with my eating.

But on Monday I was craving chocolate (something that has not happened in FOREVER!), So I ended up having a Bounty (It had the least amount of carbs for the budget I had).

Then on Tuesday, one of my work colleagues was leaving and we had beer and potato chips.

4 weeks into my low carb lifestyle, and I have began dropping the kilos! (well, I’ve dropped 2kgs and am a sexy 89.6kg this morning)

When I made the decision to go low carb, exactly a month ago, 17 October 2015, I was weighing about 92kgs. And I had been yo-yoing between 90 and 92 since around April of this year. I’ve had a very HEAVY year and I’m hoping this is the beginning of positiveness on my weight side.

After 4 weeks of trial and error (discovering with shock the veggies and fruit with high amounts of carbs in them), I have begun to know what works and what doesn’t.

Initially, I was aiming to have less than 100grams of carbs per day, and this was waaay too much. I did my research and learnt I need to have less than 50grams. So, I started aiming for 50grams. But this did not work out.

Then, I’ve begun aiming for less than 30grams of carbs… and FINALLY, I am getting results.

I’ve been doing high protein with chicken, lean beef, tuna and I’ll be adding chicken livers to my breakfast so that I eat less bacon.

My appetite is lower that it’s ever been. I struggle to reach my daily calorie goals, and sometimes have to force myself to have a tablespoon of peanut butter or something to help up my calories for the day.

I’ve not been doing any “cheat” meals (though I’ll have just ONE bite of my boyfriend’s sandwich or one spoon of his rice).

My boyfriend has also gained a bit of weight, and he has been running his heart out, and he is getting rewarded for it. I am very proud of him! Also, he has been extremely supportive of my low-carb diet, and even “saves” veggies for me to eat.

I’m glad to be finally getting rewarded for sticking with it, despite many set-backs and lack of results.

Week One: I had popcorn(monday) and 1 slice of bread (Wednesday), 3 biscuits (Saturday) – I was still adjusting and also had butternut and brown sugar beans on my menu, not realising how much carbs are in butternut and brown beans, and they have now been banished.

Week Two: I had a muffin (Monday) and a pizza (Thursday)

Week Three: Muffin (Monday) and I will be going to review a restaurant on Friday, So I might have a dessert, but keep everything else carb free.

Here is my Carbs consumed report from the last 30 days. The red arrow indicates the day I started being carb free. I want to be consuming less than 50g of carbs per day… and it can be hard to achieve.

Otherwise, I’ve been eating more Veg than I’ve ever eaten in my life. Sometimes I fail reach my 1200 calorie goal, because leaves have so few calories.

Do I need to exercise more? Do I need to reduce my protein? Do I need to eat more veggies more often?

Do I need to not have any cheat meals?

Do I need to be more patient?

I don’t know.

But what i do know is that I’m NOT giving up! I’ve given up too often in the past, and I am going to stick with this. I will generally not be having carbs as a normal part of my diet for the rest of my life (unless it’s for medical reasons or if I ever get pregnant)

I decided to have a “proper” breakfast at home this morning… less than 30 minutes after waking up.

I had some beef minced meat, a tomato, some broccoli and 1 egg. It was delicious and satisfying.

This is unlike my usual, I get to work, work for an hour then have “breakfast” around 10am. Breakfast usually being two slices of bread with peanut (during my pre-no-carb days) or scrambled eggs throughout last week.

When I have my “breakfast” at work, in less than 2 hours I start feeling hungry .

Today, on the other hand… It’s been 4 hours since my carb-free breakfast and I do not feel hungry. AT ALL!

I’ve been sipping on water all morning (it’s an extremely hot day today), and I am not craving anything.

Lunch is going to be a leafy green salad with olives, feta cheese and tomatoes.

Mid-afternoon snack is going to be strawberries

And dinner is going to be mixed GREEN veggies and roast chicken.

What I’m doing that’s different to last week is that I’m not eating every couple of hours. Instead, I’ll still to the tried and tested 3 meals a day and one afternoon snack of strawberries.

So, I began my no-carb journey last week. Based on my other attempts at diets in my whole life, it was a success.

And by success I mean the only “real” carbs I had in 7 days were popcorn and 2 slices of home-made bread.

However, my drinking was kinda high…and I had 3 biscuits and a tablespoon of pasta on Saturday.

My reward? I dropped 200grams. lol!

My 1st week of going carb free did not make me lose as much weight as I thought I would. I believe I probably ate too many calories… but based on my MyFitness Pal food logs, I never went over 1400 calories.

And for whatever reason, (perhaps it’s depression at not losing any weight) I had a blueberry muffin this morning. And truth is, I enjoyed every bite of it.

I will be doing some circuit exercises this week to try work off that muffin.

But, it is back to super low-carb now.

I won’t be having high carb and high sugar veggies and fruit such as bananas, pineapple, butternut, beans and carrots etc.

I shall be sticking to only green veg… leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage with meat.

And on the fruit side, I’ll only have strawberries which are very low in sugar and calories (incredibly low in calories… like 32 calories for 100g) and some watermelon.